Reflection on John 20:19-31

He shows up. 

I do not know if that is simplistic or amazing, but the takeaway from the Easter scene where we see the disciples locked away in a little tomb of fear is that Jesus shows up. 

Jesus shows up after the death on the cross.  He shows up after the tomb is revealed to be empty.  He shows up even though the disciples are so afraid that they have locked the doors.  And, he shows up when Thomas asks to see Jesus for himself.  He shows up.  Jesus shows up.

           

How counter-cultural is this?  Jesus shows up. 

How many fathers miss their children’s ball games and choir performances?  How many people find themselves in an empty room after the first couple weeks of grief?  How many children hear a promise from their parents that they will get out of jail, really they will, only to continue living in foster care for the remainder of their childhood?  How many people wait for their lives to be changed and for their burdens to be lifted, but those in whom they have put their hope never show up? 

If our hearts yearn for situations such as these to be resolved, imagine the yearning felt in the hearts of those first followers of Jesus who seemingly lost for good the very source of life itself, God in the flesh, the Son…the very heart of God: Jesus Christ? 

What do you do when you have lost the only one who could truly fill your life with meaning? 

What do you do when you have lost the only one who can give you true life forever? 

What do you do when you have lost Jesus?

The church has typically not dealt well with those who have lost Jesus.  Throughout the years, I have heard stories of churches treating those who have lost Jesus with contempt.  They recited the words from James 1:5-8:

If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.  But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Well, might I point out that those who have lost Jesus do not expect anything from the Lord.  That is part of the problem!  They have lost Jesus, therefore they do not expect anything from him. 

I remember one young woman, who actually later became a pastor, who was asked to stop coming to confirmation classes because the nature of her questions seemed a little too doubtful.  Instead of giving her the good news of Jesus Christ, the pastor decided that she should probably go, as if her questions might contaminate all in the room. 

Unfortunately, the church has often dealt with those who have lost Jesus like the plague, as if their inability to believe is like a virus that can spread and cause utter destruction in the community of believers. 

What utter nonsense!  We do not live in a religious bubble.  It is not like we go our days out in the world only dealing with true believers.  Most of the people that we run into any given day most likely are not followers of Jesus Christ.  Believers interact with people of unbelief whenever we head out to go to the grocery store or to the park.  I hear stories of believers having deep conversations with these unbelieving people over the lunch break at work all the time.  As it should be. 

If these people of unbelief were a virus to the Christian community, the preaching of Jesus crucified and risen would have echoed their last sounds through the halls of our churches and died off in the reverberations long ago.

Notice that in the face of unbelief Jesus does not push away or dismiss or even chide.  When confronted with unbelief, Jesus simply shows up.

Jesus shows up and offers his wounded hands and side to the ones who lost him.  He shows up to give life in a locked room which wreaked the stench of a closed, fear-filled tomb. 

Jesus make a return visit a week later to the one who missed out on the big event: Thomas.  Even Thomas, who refused to believe all his friends had told him the week before, gets a special visit from his savior. 

No harsh words were spoken to Thomas.  There was no refusal on the Lord’s part to give him anything because he had somehow lost sight of Jesus.  Instead, Jesus simply, and wonderfully, shows up so that Thomas might have life, true life, and have it abundantly.

How could the Christian church in the time James was written, so quickly after his resurrection, have forgotten that we have a Lord who seeks out the lost? 

We have a Lord that desires more than ever that we have life, and have it fully.  We have a Lord that will leave the 99 sheep in search of the one who is lost.  We have a Lord that will sweep the floors looking for the lost coin.  We have a Lord that will embrace the Son who squandered his entire life. 

We have a Lord who does not stay quiet in the tombs in which we place him.  We have a Lord who shows up through our closed doors and breaths the life of the Spirit upon us.  In other words, we have a Lord that shows up.

I once had a spiritual guide who knocked me up the side of the head, in the gentle soothing tone that spiritual guides usually use while do such things.  It was during a patch of my own unbelief, which happens more often than most Christian are willing to admit.  What she said to me changed my focus from questioning and struggling to one of following in an instant.  Here is what she said to the letter, “Jira, Jesus still shows up, whether you believe he does or not.  The only question is: Are you looking for him?”

Jesus shows up, but am I looking for him?  The question was actually a breath of fresh air after being locked away in a stuffy tomb.  It was at once a reiteration of an ancient promise, “Jesus shows up” and a fresh invitation to holy curiosity, “Are you looking for him?”

Was I looking for him?  Was I looking to find his wounded hands and side?  Was I expecting to feel his breath which breaths the Holy Spirit?  Was I expecting to see Jesus? 

“Maybe I should start looking,” I said to myself. 

It is actually easy to find Jesus once you know to look.  You see Jesus working in the restoring of friends who were previously enemies. 

You see Jesus working in the selfless acts of people with medical degrees that run toward an epidemic rather than away. 

You see Jesus at work when the one who lost everything to the storm is embraced and held close by a child of God. 

You see Jesus at work in the child who stands up to defend the weak in the hall of the school. 

You see Jesus at work in the hands that feed those who are hungry.  You see him in the eyes of the one who takes a bullet for another. 

You see Jesus at work as he goes to the cross, willingly, in order to save the unsavable. 

You see Jesus in the fresh, resurrected life of the one who was previously lost but now is found. 

And, you sense the power of Jesus’ body and blood when you come to the Lord’s Table. 

You hear him show up in Thomas’ words, "My Lord and my God!" after a period of unbelief. 

Jesus shows up.  It is the resurrection truth.  Amazingly, even after death, Jesus shows up. 

I pray that you too might be able to see and hear him show up this Easter Season.  I pray that you too might see him show up so that you might again and again come to trust that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and so that through trusting in him you may have life; true life; life with the eternal; life walking with Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Reflection on Luke 24:1-12

I vividly remember an Easter dinner spent with some friends of the family.  Just as we were settling ourselves around the kitchen table to chat while the meal cooked, the mother of the household came in quickly and declared to everyone that the weatherman on the radio had just said that there was going to be a huge, late snowfall.  She said that the boys needed to go out to the barn and get the snow plow back onto the tractor ASAP.  That announcement elicited a two second pause in the conversation, and then it resumed with the swift action of slowly raised coffee cups to sipping mouths.  No one did anything. 

Just minutes later, the Father came storming into the house, announced the oncoming storm, and told the boys to get out into the barn and get the tractor ready.  “I’m not going to let any of my guests get stuck here,” he stated authoritatively.  And, immediately the boys were putting on their coats and were out the door.  You can imagine the mother’s reaction.  The mother’s jaw dropped to the floor and she simply stared at the father.  The father simply replied, “What did I do?”

Is that not exactly how it goes for many women?  A woman says something and it is considered to be about as important as Groundhog’s Day, but a man says the same thing and it is like Jesus has risen from the dead!  Well, you can take a little comfort from the fact that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women (yes these, the first evangelists in the world, were so important to the early church that they get to bear for eternity the name, “the other woman”) you can take a little comfort from the fact that no one believed them even when someone did rise from the dead.

Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women were the first evangelists and the first preachers in the world for the Christian church.  They never hesitated.  As soon as the two angels in dazzling clothes told the women that Jesus was not dead, but had risen, these women were off to share the good news of Jesus Christ…that no one believed. 

Not only did the disciples not believe the women’s story, brushing the women off as insignificant, but the disciples considered the women’s story a bunch of filth.  So, just so you understand correctly, the first people to be told the good news of Jesus Christ by these women, Jesus’ very own disciples, thought the women’s story was utterly ridiculous!  “People raised from the dead, yeah right!  What a bunch of filth.”

In our society where Christianity has had such a great impression throughout the years, one would think that the idea of resurrection and new life would be more entrenched in our psyches than they are.  But, we have other competing ideas that seem to have a little more sway.  Ever heard these quotes?

            “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

            “Death is a natural part of life.”

            “We all labor against our own cure; for death is the cure of all disease.”

“Only death has the last word.”

Even in our society, the women’s words sound crazy!  They go against the very law of nature.  Death is death.  It is the end.  After death, there is no more.  Death is the one thing that we can count on.  And, if the dead don’t stay dead, what in this life can you possibly count on?

What the women are saying is simply illogical, both to a growing number of people in our society, and also in the dark, questioning thoughts lingering in the back of our own minds.  Like the disciples, we ponder, “People do not rise from the dead.  How could we possibly believe such pipe dreams if we did not have a chance to see it ourselves?  It simply cannot be true.” 

Sadly, the only logical response is unbelief.  Therefore, we are tempted to live as if death gets the last word.  Some people hear the good news of Easter and instead of embracing the good news decide to keep to what they already know to be true: death. 

Wow, did you hear what I just said?  Did it sound as bad to you as it did me?  “Some hear the good news of Easter and instead of embracing the good news decide to keep to what they already know to be true: death.” 

Wow, is there not something a little pathetic in that?  Is life about just getting by from one day to the next because we all know it will come to an end soon?  How sad is that?  Is life about just living paycheck to paycheck?  How monotonous is that?  Is life about just trying to get all that we desire?  How shallow is that?  Is life about just getting from one season of the Netflix series “Stranger Things” to the next?  How utterly dependant on video streaming is that? 

Have some of us really resigned ourselves to death?  Is it really healthy to keep Jesus in the tomb?  Is it really healthy to live there in the tomb even after he has left?  Is death really where we will find our answers?  Is death really something that we can construct our lives upon?

The angels in the tomb have a question for us, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

People’s lives are not changed by a monotonous life of living paycheck to paycheck.  People’s lives do not flourish when death has the last word.  Why is it so tempting to look for the living among the dead?  Why is it so easy to live lives that are not actively guided by the promise of Jesus’ resurrection?   Yes, death is real, but death does not get the last word.  Jesus got the first word when the world was created, and he gets the last word at the end also.  It is a word filled with resurrection that says “life and love wins.”

Yes, in Jesus life and love gets the last word.  That is what is proclaimed by those first evangelists! 

What if?  What if the women are not full of it?  What if death is not the last word?  If so, what might a way life look like that is focused on life and love instead of fear and death?  What might a life that walks and talks with Jesus look like, if the women are right?  What might a life that walks and talks with Jesus look like if life and love get the last word?  Would life have meaning?  Would it build up rather than tear down? 

Is that way of life not worth checking out?  Would that not be a great way to live through the next few weeks of the Easter season?  How about we give it a try?  How about we give it a test run…even if we have tried before?  How about we run beside Peter, the one disciple who actually listened to the women…you can tell he was married, he actually listened to the women, smart man…how about we run with him and find out what this life of love in Christ is all about for ourselves?  What could it hurt?  Certainly, it cannot be worse than death. 

Why not walk in ways of life and love with Christ?  After-all, Christ has already claimed you for life with him!  He has already grasped you and raised you from the tomb!  What is there to lose in living as if life and love win in the end?  After-all, they do.  Alleluia!

Reflection on John 20:1-18

The Resurrection story begins with running away.  I cannot tell you how important this small detail is in the life of our faith.   

While it was still dark, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb and sees that the stone has been rolled away.  She fears the worst.  She fears that Jesus, her rabbi, her teacher, the one who loved her as God loves her, will not even get a peaceful death.  "Someone has stolen his body," she thought with panic.  What more could happen?

You know how when it rains, it pours?  Whenever things seem to have gotten to the point of being the worst that anything can possibly get, just wait for it, it can and will get much worse.  

So, Mary runs away in the night.  She runs through the darkness, grasping for some light.  She runs to her friends, Peter and the disciple that Jesus loved, trying to find some foothold now that things have gotten as bad as things can be.  

Unfortunately, as is often the case when we reach out to people in our darkest moments, they end up being of no help.  Mary follows as Peter and the disciple that Jesus loved run and enter into the tomb to investigate, but both disciples leave and go back home without speaking to her.  

She is left there, alone.  

Little did she know that the disciple that Jesus loved saw and believed.  Little did she know that he had been given a little gift of light when he peered into the empty tomb.  She did not know because he failed to share it.  

So, there you have it.  She was utterly alone, in the dark, in a graveyard.  Can you get any more cliché than that?  Can you get any more Hollywood, 3/4ths of the way through the movie that that?

But, this is not Hollywood or clichéd storytelling, it is Mary’s life; just like it is our own lives when it happens to us.

Of course, you already know how the story ends.  But, I urge you to not rush to get to the end of the story just yet.  It is OK to sit in this in between time.   

Granted, sitting in an in between time does not feel good.  It does not feel good to lose what you have loved.  It does not feel good to stumble around in the dark.  And, it certainly does not feel good to think that you have been abandoned just when you needed your friends and your Lord the most!  It does not feel good, but the time of running away in sorrow and fear (the time spent in between the horror and the joyous new beginning) is as much a part of the life of faith than any other time.

That is why we gather together for Easter Vigil, some churches in the night, and others like us at the bridge between night and morning.  That is why this very moment has been built right into our liturgical year.  It is a time to sit with Mary and spend some time sobbing and grasping for help because that is faith too.

Without the time of running away into the darkness, there would be no break of day.   

Without the darkness and the sobbing, there would be no joy in the morning.  

And, without the horrible, terrible abandonment of friends we would not be in a place in our lives where we are open to hearing our name being called.

“Mary” the voice in the graveyard garden says.   

“Mary.”  

The name comes from the mouth of the one who knows her.  The name comes from the one who actually is not gone, though she feared he may be.  The name comes from the very lips of Jesus, our Lord.  The name comes from the lips of the one who draws her to new life.   

Mary had not been abandoned.  She had not been left in the dust of life, and neither have we. 

For the first time in days, the blooming flowers are seen in the garden and the rays of light start to fall upon the skin.  We see our Lord in a new way, and we follow our Lord in a new way.   

Our lives are not the same after the in between times.  Jesus’ resurrection brings a new life, at the right time, after our moment of running away.   

Jesus comes to the garden to let us know that everything will be just fine, in fact, more than fine, the new life that he gives us sends us running again.  But this time we do not run grasping in the darkness, rather we run in the light of Christ.  And, it feels so good to finally live in this new life.  But, never forget, the new life basking in Jesus’ light and love would not have been possible without darkness.  Both are celebrated as holy the night of the resurrection.

Reflection on John 13:1-35

When stripped bear, you might see the imperfections in my feet.

I have a somewhat crooked little toe which was the result of kicking the concrete step in front of our trailer house while running.  There are peeling heals that never seem to improve.  There is that toenail that never grows straight and has the crack on the side.

I realize that this is probably not what you came here to read.  Feet can be rather disgusting.

You know, from afar feet my feet look fine.  With nicely shined leather shoes on Sundays they look pretty grand.

However, when stripped bear they are far from perfect.  I scrunch my toes under my feet at the pool to hide the imperfections from those who would pry with their invasive eyes.

Stripped bear, my soul fairs no better.  Crooked intentions hide behind actions that gleam good.  There are all the vices that never seem to improve.  Quite frankly, stripped bear, you would see a person who has a cracked soul.  One that fails to be filed smooth.

You know, if you stand from afar everything looks fine.  Nice clothes and religious titles can hide quite a bit.  But, stripped bear, the soul is far from perfect.

That is why it is remarkable that Jesus strips, taking off his outer gowns in order to wash our exposed selves and joins us and our naked feet. 

“Lord, are you going to wash our feet?”

As if our stained feet and stained souls could taint one who gleams.

But, Jesus is not afraid in the least.  He draws close and touches all that is shameful, all that is sinful, and all that is naked and exposed.

That is the way of love, whether you are Judas, or Peter, or Thomas (whether sinful, unreliable, or reluctant to trust) love does not care, it only sees dirt that needs to be washed off.

“Not all of you needs to be cleaned, but only the feet.”

The Lord knows the heart that God created in us, a gleaming spark of love in the night.

“Take off your sandals and let me see.” 

Jesus washes away the dust on the soul and finds the love that he knew he put there.  Once exposed and made clean; you shine all that love once again.

We shine the love of the one who was stripped, hung for all to see, and showed love to all the world, naked on a cross.

So, “wash one another’s feet,”  Jesus says.
“Help each other’s love shine.” 
“Love as I have loved you.” 
Do not be ashamed,
and love all will find.